Museum day in Yokohama.  What better to do on a dreary, cold, and oh yes, raining again day?  At least today we are only walking in between buildings – and not out in the open all day like yesterday!  Our first stop is the Yokohama Port Museum which essentially tells the story of how the city and the Port of Yokohama was originally created and then how it has developed through history.  It has a lot of interesting exhibits and displays, but what we loved most was the whole exhibit on the treaty of 1858 with General Perry from the States negotiating with Japan. The different perspective, Japanese so calm and strong in their negotiations, Perry so overbearing and demanding – quite fascinating, hysterical and fun!  Then we got to pilot an ocean liner into the port – through a video game like thing. Of course, we wrecked into the pier twice.  But it was fun trying! 

Next we went to the maritime museum (hey, it’s a port city!) which was actually very interesting as well – all about one of the big shipping companies.  There were a lot of ship models and information about shipping and containers.  Ok, so we’re transportation geeks.  What can we say?

Done with the maritime museum, it was just about lunch time.  Our original plan was to walk into Chinatown – which is one of the oldest and largest Chinatowns in the world – but it was pouring down rain, and a 15 minute walk from the museum. Nope.  Not doing that.  Plan B.  We walked 2 blocks down to a Sukiyaki restaurant. Unfortunately, they were packed and we would have been 5^th on the waiting list. The sweet maitre’d basically told us not to bother, in his words “it will be a very long wait.”  Ok. Plan C!  Back to the Red Brick warehouses foot court/stalls because we wanted to try the Omurice (omelet rice – essentially an egg omelet laid on top of a pile of rice with a rich thick sauce) that is typical to Japanese cuisine.  We had seen it when we were there before and wanted to try it – so this worked perfectly. 

The only challenge was that it is lunch time on a Sunday in Yokohama.  The people!  Holy cow, you’ve not seen anything like it.  A complete and total zoo in there –just jam packed with people.  Trying to find a table was a nightmare, but we finally accomplished that feat and then went on to divide and conquer:  I went up to order while Ed held onto our precious seats for dear life.

Ordering at Yokohama Tachibana tei, I did the pointing thing again, and managed to get the Omurice with a pork cutlet and then ordered something that said it was a fried hot dog – with bacon and cheese.  Along with 2 beers.  Accepted our beeper from the sweet guy and went back to the table. But then we started looking at the bill and the money didn’t add up right so back through the throngs I went, standing in line again and then miming and pointing and asking if the bill included the 2 beers – it didn’t so I ordered them, still not understanding why the first bill was higher than it should be.  Oh well, whatever, we weren’t going to worry.  Turns out, this was a “Lost in Translation” event!  When I got our food- there were 2 fried hot dogs!  Obviously, the guy taking the order thought I meant 2 dogs when I asked for 2 beers.  Aha!  Well, now we have way too much food – but it was oh, ever so good!!  Super yummy and super filling.  We never did figure out what the fried hot dog thing was.  It was a bun of some sort – sweet bread, not just regular white bread – stuffed with potatoes and a teeny bit of bacon, and maybe some cheese.  Whatever it was, it was delicious – which was a good thing since we had 2 of them!  The omurice was surprisingly good – and that pork cutlet was the best.  We are stuffed! 

After lunch, it was still pouring cats and dogs out there, so even though we really wanted to go to the Doll Museum – it has the best reviews – we bagged it as it was another 25 minute walk – in the opposite direction of the hotel.  Nope. Not doing it.  Instead, we walked 2 minutes to the Coast Guard Museum and had the best time there.  We just stumbled upon this place when we were looking for alternatives to the Doll Museum and had no idea what to expect.  Turns out it is an exhibit on the North Korean spy ship that the Coast guard apprehended in 2001.  The actual ship is inside this big huge shed and there are tons of displays all around explaining the incident, what happened and how.  No pictures were allowed, but essentially the North Koreans took a fishing boat and converted into a spy boat, with a littler spy boat kept inside the belly of the ship.  The littler boat could be launched out the back. 

The ship was spotted and tracked, and eventually the Coast Guard went out to inspect.  But the ship fled from the Coast Guard vessel, which gave pursuit and called in back up.  Warning shots were fired across the hull, and the Coast Guard vessel filmed personnel on the ship throwing something overboard – although nothing was ever recovered.  Then suddenly there was an explosion and the spy ship sank all by itself.  A year later, Japan salvaged the hull of the ship and found all sorts weapons, including an underwater scooter and personal effects leading them to confirm the ship was indeed North Korean.  Oh, and also Kim Jong II acknowledged it was a North Korean ship at a summit conference, so, there you go!

While this story is totally fascinating, the best part was that we had our own personal guide!  When we walked in a retired Coast Guard guy was there and said, please allow me to give you some explanation. Ok – he proceeded to walk us through the whole museum, all around the ship, explaining absolutely everything and it was wonderful.  Really a great find – and we just stumbled on it because we didn’t want to walk far in the rain.

After that fun little visit, we decided to head back to the hotel, via the Japanese Overseas Migration Museum, first stopping for a cappuccino at this place called Zebra Coffee and Croissant on the top floor of this shipping container type shopping/restaurant complex.  They have a life size zebra (although without the stripes – I thought it was a horse) right in the doorway – which becomes very dangerous when you leave your umbrella under it – both Ed and I bonked our heads on its snout!  At any rate, we had a lovely warm cappuccino there – and did not succumb to any of the fabulous looking pastries. Read the paragraphs above about lunch!

Leaving the café, on the way to the museum, we walked past this bike rally – yes in the pouring rain – in a parking lot, for little kids!  It was the cutest thing you’ve ever seen!  Teeny tiny little kids – all under 6 – on the little bikes, in their rain gear, zooming around a cone track.  Too precious!  Then onto the Migration Museum, which again was an amazing find.  It was fascinating – talking about the isolationist policies that existed before 1858 and the backlash after the policies changed, where the Japanese migrated – who knew there was a massive population in Brazil???? – and how the war affected everyone abroad.  Oh, and a display with a float from a parade in Oregon. Oregon! Although thinking about the migration patterns, I guess that isn’t a real big surprise. At any rate, the whole thing is really well done. 

An excellent afternoon!

We slogged through the rain and wind, making our last little trek back to the hotel to hang out for a while.  We decided we were still so stuffed from lunch that we didn’t need a big dinner, so off to the Family Mart convenience store in the mall it is for a selection of snacks – excellent chicken skewers and fried chicken. Along with this bag of I don’t know what but it says 4 kinds of popular snacks – in English – right on it.  We think there are bags of dried, smoked cheese, dried squid, and 2 types of little sausages.  What the heck.  We already have wine and beer in the room.  It is a perfect last night on the land – we don’t have to fight the weather or the crowds, it is dry and warm and the room is really comfy, perfectly suited for eating, topped off with a great view.  What more could you ask for?

All is well here on our last wet, cold night in Yokohama!